There were approximately 12,453,000 telephones and 29,566,000 miles of telephone wire in use in the world January 1, 1912. A careful estimate places the world's telephone investment January 1, 1912, at about $1,729,000,000 which is very nearly the value of all gold coin and bullion in the United States. The annual number of telephone conversations may be placed at 22,000,000,000, which is about five times the annual number of passengers carried by all the railroads of the world.

For the purpose of this compilation the world's telephone statistics are generally tabulated in four territorial divisions, as follows:

Increase (partly стет estimated) Jan. 1, 1911

Per cent

10

Total

Miles (partly estimated) Jan. 1, 1911

Increase over

Per cent

to Total

The year 1911 is the thirty-fifth since the invention of the telephone by Prof. Alexander Graham Bell. A survey of the progress of telephone service during the past year, and of the many notable events in connection with this progress, justifies the statement that all civilized nations have awakened to the value of the telephone in commercial and social life. In the United States commercial service has been opened between New York and Denver, 2,160 miles, this being now the longest distance over which oral communication is given commercially. In Europe long distance service has been greatly extended by utilizing both the new loaded cable between Great Britain and Belgium-by which telephone service is expected to be given between London and Berlin-and the new telephone cable, constructed also on the Pupin principle, between Dover and Calais. The latter enables conversation to be carried on between Glasgow, Edinburgh and Paris, and also between Aberdeen and the French capital, a distance of 910 miles.

Recent progress in the art of submarine telephone cable manufacture will have far reaching consequences. At the present time there are over 400 miles of submarine telephone cable in use in the world, and of this total about one-half is represented by the four cables between France and England, and the two between Belgium and England. The longest submarine telephone cable lies between La Panne (Belgium) and St. Margaret's Bay (England), a distance of 55 miles.

The European international long distance land line systems have like wise received important additions, due to the opening of the line between Paris and Madrid, 900 miles, and the direct line between Berlin and Rome still under construction, a distance of over 1,000 miles. As regards the Continent, there is now scarcely any important city that cannot talk with any other important city. By far the largest interurban or toll telephone plant in Europe has been built by the German Government, which according to the latest official statistics, had about one-half of the total interurban or toll telephone wire of Europe.

Finally, it is worthy of note that during the year 1911 the great United States railway systems have made rapid advances toward the general use of the telephone for train dispatching. Since the introduction of the use of the telephone for that purpose, over 200 of the United States railroads have adopted that system. In fact, the telephone has supplanted the telegraph on over 50,000 miles of railroad, which is over 20% of the total railroad mileage of the country. A careful estimate places the miles of wire used by railroad companies for train dispatching at 120,000, and the corre sponding number of telephones at 10,000.